TU loses on road

Monday

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – James Woodard made five 3-pointers and scored 25 points to lead Tulsa, but the Golden Hurricane fell at Maryland, 85-74, Sunday evening at Comcast Center.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – James Woodard made five 3-pointers and scored 25 points to lead Tulsa, but the Golden Hurricane fell at Maryland, 85-74, Sunday evening at Comcast Center.

Woodard was one of three players in double figures for the Hurricane (4-9), as Rashad Smith and Pat Swilling Jr. each scored 12 points. Woodard also tallied five assists, and Swilling knocked down four 3-pointers, as the two guards combined for nine of Tulsa’s 12 threes in the game. D’Andre Wright led TU with 11 rebounds.

Tulsa shot 39 percent from the field (26-for-67) and made 12-of-26 3-pointers in the game. The Hurricane only shot 10 free throws all game, including two in the second half, but made all 10 foul shots.

The Terrapins (8-5) made 23-of-35 free throws, and shot 43 percent from the field (26-of-60), making 10-of-25 threes. Both teams committed 10 turnovers, and Maryland took a 43-34 advantage on the boards. Dez Wells scored 18 points to lead five Maryland players in double figures.

"I thought we did some OK things, but it was not enough to win the game," Tulsa Head Coach Danny Manning said. "We were shooting the ball well, and they weren’t shooting it well, but you knew at some point they were going to make a run and get things clicking. I believe they went on an 18-4 run, so we have to do a better job of stopping the bleeding."

Tulsa started the game by jumping out to an 11-4 lead with a couple of 3-pointers by Tim Peete and a three by Woodard. The Hurricane led 19-9 at the 10:20 mark, and extended its lead to 25-10 with 9:03 to play in the period. From 13-9, Woodard made two free throws, and Wright hit a jumper and a layup to spark a 12-1 run capped by a pair of Swilling 3-pointers that made the score 25-10.

Maryland then used an 18-4 run to cut the TU advantage to 29-28, but the Hurricane held onto the lead until a 3-pointer by Seth Allen tied the game at 35-35 at the half.

Smith converted a layup to start the second half, but a 3-pointer by Allen gave Maryland its first lead, 38-37, since the 18:33 mark of the first half. A dunk by Smith and jumper in the lane by Woodard gave the Golden Hurricane a 41-38 lead, its last of the game.

Trailing 45-43 with 12:49 to play, TU knotted the score with a jumper by Brandon Swannegan. Maryland, however, took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Jake Layman, leading 48-45 with 12:32 left in the game. The Terrapins’ lead grew as large as 74-62 with 2:04 remaining, but two 3-pointers each by Swilling and Woodard around four Maryland free throws cut the deficit to five points. TU trailed 79-74 with 0:31 left in the game, but that was as close as it came to

"We have to use these kinds of games to make us better, knowing that we get confidence playing on the road," Manning said. "We’ve been in hostile situations at other people’s gyms. We understand what it takes. When we talked about it earlier we compared it to bowling; we had too many open frames and were not able to close them in terms of execution offensively and defensively the whole time. That is something that we’ve got to continue to work at and get better."

The Golden Hurricane returns home to the friendly confines of the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Jan. 4 to take on Cal State Fullerton at noon in the final non-conference game of the season. That contest begins a three-game homestand for TU at the Reynolds Center.

Follow Tulsa Athletics on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TulsaHurricane and Facebook at www.facebook.com/TulsaHurricane. Follow Tulsa Men’s Basketball on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TUMBasketball and Facebook at www.facebook.com/TulsaMBasketball.

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